St. Mary County is a small rural midwestern enclave with a unique approach to handling accusations of child sexual abuse. Hoping to spare children the trauma of lengthy court appearances and probing interrogations, St. Mary's professionals strive to obtain confessions from accused sex offenders rather than ask the victim to bear the burden of proof. Treating this county as a critical case study, scholars from a variety of fields come together to analyze this community's unique approach. They address relevant case law, innovative treatments for both victim and offender, and the social history of child sexual abuse as a national policy concern. They cover legal burdens and scientific methods, prosecutors and protocol, the interrogation of victims and suspects, the use of expert witnesses, defense strategies, and practice wisdom in videotaping. In addition, they examine the unfolding drama of a single legal case from incidence to conviction. The result is a fascinating dialogue that confronts the unique complexities of child sexual abuse for readers on all sides of the issue. Introducing a model that makes enormous headway in the pursuit of justice, fairness, and trauma treatment, this interdisciplinary text is an indispensible tool for all communities seeking redress.

Prosecuted But Not Silenced is a powerful documentary about a mother and daughter's tragic involvement with the judicial system when there were allegations of child sexual abuse—a human rights and civil rights issue for women and children. It is an important educational tool for judges, lawyers, social workers, therapists, politicians, and the general public so that people realize what still occurs today. A National Health Crisis, Maralee’s story reveals the last taboo and a crime that needs the public's attention, and emphasizes the need for training in the dynamics of maltreatment so that no more mothers have to suffer what happened to Maralee and her daughter.

One area of inquiry of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is ensuring justice for victims through the processes for referral for investigation and prosecution. This report presents the Royal Commission's final recommendations on these criminal justice issues. It presents recommendations to reform the criminal justice system to ensure that the following objectives are met: the criminal justice system operates in the interests of seeking justice for society, including the complainant and the accused; criminal justice responses are available for victims and survivors; and victims and survivors are supported in seeking criminal justice responses.

One area of inquiry of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is ensuring justice for victims through the processes for referral for investigation and prosecution. This report presents the Royal Commission's final recommendations on these criminal justice issues. It presents recommendations to reform the criminal justice system to ensure that the following objectives are met: the criminal justice system operates in the interests of seeking justice for society, including the complainant and the accused; criminal justice responses are available for victims and survivors; and victims and survivors are supported in seeking criminal justice responses.

This book, the first to examine the experience of child victims their families who attempt to seek justice in America's courts, offers practical reforms that would bring greater sensitivity justice to the legal process. Reviewing American legal history the equivocal treatment of children sex crimes, Dziech Schudson explain how current courtroom procedures often fail to acknowledge a child's abilities needs, how child witnesses are often re-victimized by the legal system that is supposed to help them. They argue that there is no justification for subjecting abused children to a second round of trauma -- in court. This important book recommends sweeping changes to assure justice for children, their families, those accused of harming them.

A mother's story of how historic child sexual abuse can affect the lives of the victims. It shows the determination of a mother fighting the system and seeking justice. How she loses so much, but through her strength and tenacity, she faces the inevitable. She supports her children at their time of need. When the trauma was buried deep within their subconscious; behaviour presents itself in an irrational manner. Being naive to this situation and not believing this could happen to her family, she has to learn fast in order to understand self-harm and suicidal thoughts. The people she meets along the way, help show her the path that can lead to a better understanding of why and how things must take their course. She learned through heartache, how other people's feelings, can be transmitted in a totally different aspect, to the truth. Family and friends find it difficult to believe, others don't wish to be involved. At times the subject is taboo and it also shows the stigma towards mental health. This book is written to help others, recognise when a young victim conceals the emotional pain and the conscious mind of the adult, is terrifi ed of acknowledging the abuse.

This book investigates the causes and consequences of image-based sexual abuse in a digital era. Image-based sexual abuse refers to the taking or sharing of nude or sexual photographs or videos of another person without their consent. It includes a diversity of behaviours beyond that of "revenge porn", such as the secret trading of nude or sexual images online; "upskirting", "downblousing" and other "creepshots"; blackmail or "sextortion" scams; the use of artificial intelligence to construct "deepfake" pornographic videos; threats to distribute photographs and videos without consent; and the taking or sharing of sexual assault imagery. This book investigates the pervasiveness and experiences of these harms, as well as the raft of legal and non-legal measures that have been introduced to better respond to and prevent image-based sexual abuse. The book draws on groundbreaking empirical research, including surveys in three countries with over 6,000 respondents and over 100 victim-survivor and stakeholder interviews. Guided by theoretical frameworks from gender studies, sociology, criminology, law and psychology, the authors argue that image-based sexual abuse is more commonly perpetrated by men than women, and that perpetration is higher among some groups, including younger and sexuality minority men. Although the motivations of perpetrators vary, a dominant theme to emerge was that of power and control. The gendered nature of the abuse means that it is best understood as a "continuum of sexual violence" because victim-survivors often experience it as part of a broader pattern of gendered harassment, violence and abuse. Written in a clear and direct style, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, law and psychology. Image-based Sexual Abuse is also an essential resource for activists, legal and policy practitioners, technology companies and victim-survivors seeking to understand the deeply complex nature of intimate-image sharing in a digital era.